How to Start a Mom Blog in 2017

First – great choice! Blogging is a fantastic creative outlet and avenue for real adult interaction. Let’s face it. It can be lonely being a mom. And I don’t know about you but I bored myself when the only thing I had to talk about was the latest poonami or teething episode.

Yes, people pay me to blog for them. There are other ways that you can make money blogging too. In fact, I started my own blog because I wanted to make money and avoid going back to my job after my maternity leave was finished. I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving my little one.

And I made it! I was able to build my income in my first-year blogging (by freelance writing) to the point where I don’t need to go back.

Blogging is awesome!

There are so many other amazing bloggers out there too who’re making incredible incomes from their blogs. I mean, just look at these numbers:

Carly, Mommy on Purpose – $5,151.47 in a month

Meredith, Arts & Classy – $1,430.12 in a month

Paula Dennholt, Easy Baby Life – $4,310 in a month

And, uh… the reason I chose these three lovely ladies? Sure, I could’ve cherry picked a couple of bloggers who’re making high five or six figures a year and have been blogging for the last five years, but I find these numbers so much more relatable and achievable. (But still awesome, am I right?) Also, as far as I can tell they aren’t doing anything crazy like:

Running webinars (how do you plan a webinar when you’re on call with a baby 24/7? Or on toddler duty?)

Moonlighting (literally) as a freelancer (trust me – it takes a lot of time)

There’s a common thread here in the monetization methods – ad revenue and affiliate marketing. Easy, painless, auto-pilot, methods that work whether you’re showing up in your best mom jeans (ok, they might still be maternity jeans but they’re soo comfy right?), your PJ’s or you’re not showing up at all and spending the day on the couch.affiliate marketing. Easy, painless, auto-pilot, methods that work whether you’re showing up in your best mom jeans (ok, they might still be maternity jeans but they’re soo comfy right?), your PJ’s or you’re not showing up at all and spending the day on the couch.

So. Are you ready to join the mom blogging ranks?

In this tutorial, I’m going to lay out exactly what you need to start a mom blog. Don’t worry, it’s easy!

1. Choosing a niche

The very first thing you need to decide is what your blog is going to be about.

It’s not that I can’t learn from non-moms, but often their advice is NOT going to work for me. I can’t just close myself off and work for even three hours at a time (unless I hit the naptime jackpot). Dinner doesn’t make itself and I still have a household to run.

Other moms understand that writing a welcome email series is vying for priority with doing the laundry and going for yet another park adventure.

So, the question is: who do you want to write for?

Psst… I often cheat with this question and just say I’m writing for me from a year or two ago. This is the easiest way to choose an audience.

3. Choose a domain name

Once you’ve decided on a niche and who you want to write for, your next step is to choose a domain name.

Yes, this is your blog name.

When I first started, I had no idea what a domain name was, what hosting was, and how they were different. It’s even more confusing because sometimes your domain name is thrown in for free with your hosting anyway.

There’s a few things to consider for your domain name:

Make sure it’s not already taken and the social media handles are available. You can check with the app Knowem that the social media profiles you might want in your blog’s name are available.

Should you go with a .com, .net, .org, or .ninja? Although I’d love to be a .ninja, my recommendation is to only use .com or a .co if you must. It’s the most common, and if you choose any other you’ll likely lose traffic to the .com version of your name.

One final note – there’s a lot of names that will be taken, so come prepared with a few options.

4. Hosting

Are you ready to get your hands on your shiny new blog? Here goes!

I recommend hosting with A2 Hosting. They’re reasonably priced and have a great reputation for speedy websites, quality hosting, and awesome customer service.

Click this link to head on over to A2 Hosting so you can follow along with the tutorial.

Click on Sign Up.

Choose your plan. Lite or Swift are both good options and if you can spring the cash for Turbo, well it’s super fast!

Type in your domain and click Check. This will check if it’s available. My fingers are crossed for you! If it is, click Continue.

Choose whether you want your plan to be for 12 months or 24 months (you get more of a discount for choosing a longer plan).

Decide whether you want to enable any of the extras A2 offers (you don’t need them).

Click Continue.

Check the box for DNS Management (it’s free and makes your site faster so why not?). I highly recommend springing the extra $ for ID Protection as it stops your personal information being available to anyone who looks for it. Check the box for email forwarding if you’d like your site email address to go directly to your personal email.

A2 Optimized/Jetpack/Clef – these are special options that you’ve got because you’re hosting with A2. You’ll find the settings for each of these different services/plugins there. As you add plugins to your blog, you’ll find that you might get more options appearing.

Posts – this is where you can Add New blog posts, view and edit old blog posts, and add categories and tags to your website to use on your posts.

Media – this is where any photos, videos, and documents live when you upload them to your site.

Pages – this is where you can view, edit, and add new pages to your site.

Comments – this is where you can see all the comments that have been left on your site.

Appearance – you can change Themes, Customize your theme, add Widgets to your sidebars and footer, add or remove pages and posts from your menu, and get into the code editor (only if you want to).

Plugins – this is where you’ll find the plugins you’ve installed and where you can add more. Plugins add new features and functions to your website without you needing to know any code.

Users – you can add additional users here and edit your own profile. Make sure you’re happy with the way your user name is displayed publicly. Also you can add your gravatar here which will give you an avatar when you reply to comments on your site.

Tools – some plugins will add options to the tools section. I’ve never really used this at all.

Settings – there’s a lot of things you can edit in here.

General Settings – update your site title and tagline, change your email address, set timezone and date/time formats.

Reading – decide whether to have your front page your blog roll or a static homepage. If you choose a static page, you have to choose which page you’ll use as your homepage and what page your blog will live on.

Discussion – have a look over these settings for comments, fill in any that apply and check the boxes to your liking.

Media – you can change image sizes here, I recommend leaving it as the default.

Permalinks – make sure you’ve got Post Name This will remove the date from your URL.

7. Comment Below With Your Link!

Congratulations! You just started a blog.

I’m so excited for you and I can’t wait to see what you make of it. Comment below with your link so I can come and see your site and add you to my list of awesome mom bloggers!

Hi, I'm Cath

Blogger. Freelance Writer & Pinterest Manager. Mom of one. Keeps me busy! I’m also a corporate escapee, determined to help moms create options so they can stay home with the little ones and contribute to the family finances.

2 Comments

Hi Cath! So happy I stumbled upon your blog and have enjoyed looking through it! I am really hoping to be successful at the world of blogging and pinning! Scouring the internet for advice and tips!! My blog is venturesofaprestidge.com
Thank you for your time!

Hey Taylor! Great to see you here 🙂 I’m glad you’re finding my blog helpful – blogging and pinning are my two favorite things and they tie together so nicely. I can’t wait to see what you’ve got in store for your blog.